We've entered a New Year! There will be challenges ahead for us all. I fervently hope we all make it through 2017 in good health, both mental and physical.

Guinea Lynx has turned 18! I guess this means we can vote, but it will be another three years before GL can drink ;-) ! Some content has been available since 2000, hosted on another site, moved to another temporary host (thanks, Teresa!) and finally to its own site here. The current board dates back to 1/1/2002 (there was a temporary board before that).

Thanks to current and past members, Guinea Lynx has been going strong for all these years! A number of members have been active since the beginning. We even have a crew of "former guinea pig caretakers" who still love and care about guinea pigs around the world.

I remain firmly committed to keeping Guinea Lynx Google-ad-free (THIS is what Guinea Lynx could look like without your help: http://www.guinealynx.info/sample.html ). So if any of you are willing to help cover the costs associated with running this board (hosting/internet, reference books, etc.) which have unfortunately increased, your donation would be greatly appreciated. While contributing to expenses is voluntary, it really does keep this site going. And if you have never contributed, perhaps this could be the year you start!

I would be happy to give you a line of text (or update your notation) as a thank you for your help. Choose whatever notation you'd like - make one up or try "Supporter in '17". Notations appear under your avatar (if you don't have an avatar, I can help resize a picture of one of your guinea pigs so you can upload it to your profile).

For a $40 donation I will be happy to set up an animated avatar (up to 9 guinea pig pics) for you. An existing animated avatar can be updated (new pics) with any donation.

VERY IMPORTANT! => I do NOT always remember to ask you what you'd like your notation to be or if you'd like an animated avatar so PLEASE remind me and I will be happy to do so (this is a consequence of getting older and being less organized!) so this is my official apology if I forget!

If you write me at the following address, I can send you my mailing address if you wish to send a check (preferred). For those who would rather use Paypal, I only have a personal Paypal account (it doesn't take credit or debit cards). For what it's worth, mailing a donation works better for me.Please note, Paypal is now charging additional fees. If you want to make sure I receive your entire donation (and avoid these fees), select the "Personal" tab and "Gift" and make sure you either have funds in your account or are drawing funds from your bank (an "e-check" rather than a bank debit card or credit card). Then your entire donation should go through rather than having Paypal remove substantial fees. Checks do not incur additional fees so all of your donation is guaranteed to help GL.

The email I use for Paypal is:
You all make this board a real community and I'm grateful for your participation here. I am especially indebted to the members who answer questions about guinea pig care and monitor the medical board. I am so proud that you all make a difference in the lives of guinea pigs and in each other's lives - sometimes in wonderful and unexpected ways. And you all absolutely provide the inspiration I need to keep me going!

Thanks for making Guinea Lynx the great place it is!!

...and thanks for letting me talk about my chicken, Mia and the rest of the flock, Ebon, Ella, Ginger, and Winnie (see the chicken thread for pictures) :-)

p.s. it looks like this year I am going to have to do some upgrading which may mean moving to another host. I do not yet know how the old board software (really old) is going to run on an upgraded operating system with a newer version of mysql and php. I am hoping everything can be left intact. I will have to do some testing before I move. Hopefully it will be fairly painless but I just don't know.

Anyone know why most of the threads in General Chat are in Japanese now? Perhaps it''s something on my computer? I''m going to check on another computer right now, be right back. Nope, same thing. General chat has been taken over by Japanese writing. Knew I should have learned an Asian language instead of all European!

Just a quick note to say if any of you have not yet, but were planning to make a donation this year, it would be greatly appreciated!

Since I am no longer selling calendars and books, I am especially relying on the goodness of members! You can write me for my address if you need it, or can use Paypal (read the first post for tips to maximize your donation).

This year there were extra expenses since I had to pay for two hosts at the same time for testing purposes while I got everything ready for a major conversion and upgrade to a new operating system and newer software. This conversion took literally hours - I hope the board will work well for some time!